A Happy Valentine's Day to Everyone You Love!
During the month of love - February - I'm taking the opportunity to honor my mother, who died this past year. People have often asked me how I began my company and my mother's kimono played an important part. The kimono was given to her by her stepmother, and was later passed on to me. Although I appreciate the beauty of this garment now, at the time it seemed like just an everyday thing, a part of ordinary Japanese life. Later, when I had my store in New York City, Americans, like my friend Sherry, saw it as something beautiful and exotic. This newfound appreciation inspired me to trace the pattern and then remodel to western-style garments from vintage traditional Japanese kimono.
My mother had always made things by sewing, knitting, and crocheting, so I felt confident from an early age in my ability to make things too. But, where my mother followed the pattern and the rules, I always liked to break them. For example, when I was young she and I were knitting a pair of gloves and I insisted on changing the fingertips to a yellow yarn, putting a fun twist on the traditional design. This technique has continued throughout my career, where I take something useful and make it beautiful by adding an unusual twist.
In the photo and video Sherry and I are celebrating both our friendship of nearly 25 years and the life of my mother. She wanted to do something for me because she had heard of my mother's death a few days before. Sherry appreciated my designs and modeled for me from the beginning, at her opera concerts. Besides my love for her as a wonderful friend, she also represents the kind of woman I'm inspired to design for: free-spirited, talented, beautiful.
So the lovely strands that weave together in these images come from my love for my mother, for my work which fuses past and present, and for my dear friend and the customers that bring all of it to life.
Thank you!
